The current trend of individual Chinese travellers shows that tourists prefer to find information online by using apps in their language. WeChat is a Chinese social media app that has 889 million active users.

With WeChat Visit Thailand app, Chinese tourists can ask for tourist information and assistance 24 hours by chatting with TAT’s help desk, he said.

In addition, its call centre 1672 service also has Chinese speaking agents to offer tourist information.

According to TAT, Chinese tourists were the largest group of international visitors in 2016, contributing 430 billion baht in revenue from 8.8 million Chinese visitors. The number is expected to increase this year to 9 million visitors who will generate about 480 billion baht in revenue, up 8% and representing 26.6% of the overall tourism revenue.

Airlines update

Thai AirAsia has introduced “AirAsia Red Carpet” service to offer privileges to its low-cost travellers.

The new service offers its passengers an exclusive check-in counter, preflight food and beverages at its lounge and priority boarding and baggage claim.

The service can be selected through the “Manage My Booking” feature on the AirAsia website. Prices start at 800 baht for domestic flights and 1,000 baht for international and Fly Thru flights.

The service is available for AirAsia and AirAsia X passengers on all flights from Don Mueang Airport. Domestic passengers will have an access to The Coral Executive Lounge and international passengers can use the service at the King Power Lounge.

The service is also available at Phuket airport, Chiang Mai airport for international flights only and Udon Thani airport.